The Mandate

The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights is appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate and report on the relationship between human rights and poverty. In each calendar year, the Special Rapporteur:

Conducts two official country visits.

Submits a thematic report to the Human Rights Council in June.

Submits a thematic report to the General Assembly in October.

Issues communications to State Governments in response to relevant information received from civil society on urgent and/or particularly important issues that might exacerbate conditions of poverty or threaten the human rights of the poor.

Through these specific outputs, the Special Rapporteur seeks to influence agenda-setting and policy-making at both the national and international levels, and give a higher profile to these issues through contributions to public debate, publications, and advocacy. To read more about the mandate, see the UN’s Extreme Poverty and Human Rights mandate page here.

Poverty is not inevitable; it is a political choice. The spokes in this wheel show some of the key choices that are made that have the effect of entrenching poverty. Each of these issues arises consistently throughout the work of the mandate.